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On February 3, the RA NA Armenia Faction convened parliamentary hearings. The topic was the issue of regularly closing the Lachin Corridor.

By the proposal of the Head of the Faction Seyran Ohanyan the participants of the hearings with one minute’s silence standing honoured the memory of the victims of the Artsakh all wars.

Opening the hearings Syeran Ohanyan noticed that they are held in the military-political hard situation and today such discussion is necessary.

The deputy Andranik Tevanyan touched upon the statement authored by the Armenia Faction, the issue of the Lachin Corridor closed already 54 days, raising the approaches and contradictions of the power and the opposition on the settlement of the Artsakh problem. “The pursuit of right to self-determination of Artsakh should be on the political agenda of Armenia, and Artsakh cannot be part of Azerbaijan. The Republic of Armenia has commitment to be responsible for the security of Artsakh and other issues. The authorities do not agree with us on these items,” the deputy stressed.

He also underlined that the closing of Lachin Corridor put Artsakh before humanitarian crisis. “The problems related to Lachin Corridor are in the inner-political field now. We can make a change in this situation, if we are able to make change in the policy of Armenia through the public-political wide consolidation,” the speaker underscored.

The statement of the faction strictly condemns the provocative steps taken by Azerbaijan closing the Lachin Corrdior connecting Armenia with Artsakh with a false ecological pretext on December 3 and 12. It is noted that the abovementioned criminal actions of Azerbaijan contradict the trilateral statement of November 9, 2020, according to which, the Lachin Corridor will provide the connection of Artsakh with Armenia along 5 km in length. According to the Faction, Baku shows with these deconstructive steps that it refuses the assumed obligations, violates the international humanitarian rights, tries to create atmosphere of fear in Artsakh and imposes psychological pressures against the Artsakh Armenians, aiming at the committing genocide and unleash a new war.

The Statement calls on the international community to condemn the provocative steps of Azerbaijan and the bellicose behavior, give adequate assessments and undertake actions stemming from the UN Charter.

During the exchange of ideas, the participants of the hearings referred to their approaches on the blocking of the corridor, the problem of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the negotiation process going on for decades and 3 fundamental principles, the inner and foreign policy pursued by the authorities in the issue of the conflict settlement, the issue of Armenia-Turkey Armenia-Azerbaijan relations.

The speakers condemned the authorities of Armenia, noting a number of factors, the consequences of which are seen today. They spoke about the idleness of the authorities, the war and the situation following it, giving promises to the citizens and not fulfilling them, falling short of a request in the right to self-determination of Artsakh, as well as in solving the issue of the Lachin Corridor. They also talked about shift of power, which was not considered urgent in everybody’s opinion.

Summing up the parliamentary hearings, Andranik Tevanyan urged the participants to present the proposals in written form. He clarified that the text of the statement being in circulation was written already on December 12, and it is designed to additionally revise.

The MP also highlighted the criticism directed to the opposition.

“The future of Artsakh is self-determination on its historical territory. We must do our best in order to show our support in that issue,” the Head of the Armenia Faction Seyran Ohanyan stressed in his concluding speech, thanking the participants of the hearings for concerned discussion and proposals.

Let us note that the RA NA former and current deputies, political scientists, lawyers, experts, representatives of the NGOs and others took part in the hearings.